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INTEGRITY  OF  REPUBLICAN  ADMINIS¬ 
TRATION. 


SPEECHES  OP 


Senator  Anthony  and  Hon.  James  Wilson. 


TREASURY  ACCOUNTS, 

Mr,  ANTHONY.  The  Committee  on  Print¬ 
ing,  to  whom  was  referred  a  motion  to  print 
a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
transmitting,  in  answer  to  a  Senate  resolution 
of  February  9,  1876,  a  statement  of  balances 
due  to  the  United  States  from  public  officers 
and  from  other  parties  no  longer  in  the  public 
service  which  have  accrued  since  January, 
1830,  have  instructed  me  to  report  back  the 
'*same  adversely,  except  so  far  as  refers  to  a 
^  condensed  statement  which  contains  a  good 
deal  of  valuable  information  and  which  the 
committee  think  may  well  be  printed.  I  will 
not  ask  a  vote  upon  the  adverse  report  in  the 
absence  of  the  Senator  from  West  Virginia, 
[Mr.  Davis,]  on  whose  motion  the  informa¬ 
tion  was  called  for.  I  am  quite  confident  that 
when  he  comes  to  examine  this  voluminous 
and  expensive  and  utterly  useless  document, 
he  will  not  desire  that  the  Government  shall 
go  to  the  additional  expense  of  $2,262  to 
print  it. 

It  contains  a  list  of  all  persons,  including 
those  not  now  in  the  public  service,  against 
whom  there  appears  to  be  a  balance  on  the 
books  of  the  Treasury.  In  very  many  in¬ 
stances  the  balance  is  nominal,  not  real,  some¬ 
times  so  designated ;  in  very  many  cases  it 
arises  out  of  misunderstanding  between  the 
disbursing  officer  and  the  accounting  officers 
of  the  Treasury,  which,  when  they  come  to 
be  explained  and  adjusted,  may  be  decided  in 
favor  of  one  party  or  the  other.  In  very  many 
instances  it  arises  from  balances  due  from 
officers  of  the  Navy  who  have  gone  down 
with  their  ships  with  their  papers  upon  them  ; 
officers  of  the  Army  who  have  fallen  in  battle 
or  died  in  hospital,  and  whose  vouchers  have 
been  lost ;  while  it  is  apparent  from  the  sup¬ 
plies  which  they  had  purchased  and  from 
the  men  whom  they  had  paid  that  the  money 
intrusted  to  them  had  been  expended  for  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  appropriated.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  law  these  all  appear  upon  the 


books  of  the  Treasury  as  indebted  for  the  un¬ 
settled  balances ;  for,  while  the  Treasury 
charges  an  officer  •  with  everything  paid  to 
him,  it  does  not  credit  him  with  what  he  has 
paid  out  until  it  is  ascertained  and  adjusted 
according  to  regulations  of  the  Department. 
Many  of  these  are  charges  for  overpayments  ; 
that  is,  where  an  officer  has  erroneously  paid 
to  some  creditor  of  the  Government  more 
than  he  was  legally  authorized  to  receive ;  and 
of  course  the  disbursing  officer  must  suffer 
the  consequence  of  his  error.  That  is  a  blun¬ 
der,  but  it  is  not  a  crime.  He  has  not  em¬ 
bezzled  the  money ;  he  has  not  defrauded  the 
Government;  he  has  made  a  mistake  and 
paid  a  man  a  thousand  dollars,  for  example, 
when  it  appears  from  all  the  information  yet 
in  the  possession  of  the  Treasury  that  he  only 
ought  to  have  paid  him  $990 ;  and  therefore 
he  stands  as  a  defaulter  for  $10  on  the  books 
of  the  Treasury.  This  may  in  many  cases 
remain  yet  open  for  adjustment.  I  am  sure 
that  nobody  wants  to  publish  the  names  of 
such  men,  living  and  dead,  as  embezzlers  and 
defaulters  in  any  criminal  sense. 

The  great  defalcations,  the  criminal  defal¬ 
cations,  are  all  known ;  they  are  all  made 
public;  they  cannot  be  concealed  without 
criminal  complicity  of  the  accounting  officers. 
They  are  put  in  suit  against  the  defaulters 
and  against  their  bondsmen  ;  and  other  cases 
are  put  in  suit  the  results  of  which  do  not 
always  show  that  the  officer  is  a  defaulter. 
There  may  be  cases  of  honest  differences  of 
opinion  between  the  officer  and  the  Depart¬ 
ment  as  to  the  law,  which  are  to  be  settled  by 
the  courts.  A  great  many  cases  grew  up  be¬ 
fore  the  present  improved  system  of  keeping 
the  accounts,  when  disbursing  officers  who 
were  also  receiving  officers,  received  the  reve¬ 
nues  of  the  Government,  disbursed  the  ex¬ 
penses  of  their  Departments,  and  turned  over 
the  balance  to  the  Treasury,  That  system 
prevailed  until  it  was  reformed  in  ©ur  day, 
and  under  •  that  system  the  result  of  every 
difference  of  opinion  between  a  disbursing 


2 


officer  and  the  Department  would  stand  as  a 
defalcation  against  him.  Some  of  these  cases 
are  so  trifling  that  I  have  collated  a  few  of 
them.  Although  I  should  not  read  the  name 
of  any  person  who  would  suffer  by  it,  I  sup¬ 
pose  the  illustrious  name  of  Washington  Irv- 
5;ing  will  not  suffer  if  I  say  that  he  stands  here 
as  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of  three  cents  / 
Here  is  another  officer  in  the  list  whom  I  was 
instrumental,  among  others,  in  commending 
to  the  public  service,  in  which  he  greatly  dis¬ 
tinguished  himself.  I  shall  hold  myself  re¬ 
sponsible  for  his  defalcation,  principal  and 
interest  in  gold.  It  amounts  to  one  cent.  I 
d®  not  suppose  anybody  will  think  that  Robert 
Walsh  was  an  enibezzler  or  defaulter  to  the 
Government,  and  yet  he  is  put  down  for  a 
small  amount.  Here  I  find  an  old  colonel 
whom  I  knew  well,  who  died  in  1854,  who  is 
marked  as  a  defaulter  for  $3.60. 

]\Ir  President,  I  do  not  wish  to  impair  the 
credit  of  the  great  banking  house  of  this  city, 
but  I  am  bound  to  say  that  Corcoran  &  Riggs 
stand  down  here  as  defaulters  under  this  call. 

Mr.  HAMLIN.  What  is  the  amount  of 
that  ? 

Mr.  ANTHONY.  Seventy-two  dollars. 

Mr.  SHERMAN.  I  ask  if  the  English 
bankers.  Baring  Brothers  &  Co.,  are  there? 

Mr.  ANTHONY.  Baring  Brothers  are 
down,  and,  worse  than  that,  the  English  gov¬ 
ernment  itself  is  put  down  as  a  defaulter. 
As  we  have  just  settled  nearly  all  our  old 
difficulties  with  England  and  got  into  a  new 
one,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  the  credit  of  that 
government  impaired,  and  for  its  relief  I 
must  state  that  a  marginal  note  reads :  “  The 
Secretary  of  State  says  he  has  no  doubt  this 
was  settled  long  ago.”  It  occurred  in  1813, 
but  it  stands  on  the  books  as  over  $1,200  of 
default  by  the  British  government. 

Mr.  President,  I  might  go  over  a  great  many 
illustrations  of  the  same  kind,  but  I  have 
made  quite  sufficient  to  show  that,  while  there 
are  of  course  in  the  great  operations  of  the 
Treasury  many  defaulters  and  many  embez¬ 
zlers,  nothing  could  be  more  unjust  than  to 
mix  them  up  with  these  persons  who  are 
marked  in  default  in  the  Treasury,  hut  who 
are  not  defaulters  in  any  sense  whatever,  and 
probably  do  not  owe  the  Government  any¬ 
thing.  Certainly  it  is  not  likely  that'  Corco¬ 
ran  &  Riggs,  Baring  Brothers,  and  the  British 
government  owe  the  Treasury  anything. 

The  aggregate  statement  of  tlie  disburse¬ 
ments  of  the  Treasury  under  the  list  is  a 
paper  exceedingly  creditable  to  the  American 
Government.  I  do  not  mean  to  any  particu¬ 
lar  party,  but  to  the  financial  liLstory  of  the 
United  States.  There  have  been  disbursed 
since  1834 — I  can  hardly  read  such  big  fig¬ 
ures — $13,936,870,072.05,  of  which  is  marked 
upon  these  books  $22,266,000,  being  about 


half  a  million  of  dollars  a  year,  and  a  great 
part  of  this  is  nominal,  not  real. 

The  losses  on  the  $1,000  of  disbursements 
were,  in  the  administration  of  Jackson, 
$10.55 ;  Van  Buren,  $21.15  ;  Harrison, 
$10.37 ;  Polk,  $8.34 ;  Taylqr  and  Fillmore, 
$7.64;  Pierce,  $5.86;  Buchanan,  nearly 
$6.98 ;  Lincoln,  $1.41 ;  Johnson,  48  cents ; 
Grant,  the  first  four  years,  40  cents;  the  sec*- 
ond  four  years,  26  cents — showing  a  constant 
decline,  which  is  owing  in  a  large  degree  to 
the  improved  manner  of  keeping  the  ac¬ 
counts;  and  that  is  due  very  largely  to  the 
Committees  on  Finance  and  Appropriations, 
who  have  introduced  legislation  here  which 
has  compelled  much  greater  accuracy  and  re¬ 
sponsibility.  The  average  percentage  of  losses 
during  this  whole  period  on  the  disbursements 
is  $1.59  on  the  thousand.  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  aggregate  of  any  class  of  corporate 
or  private  bu.sine.ss,  hanking,  commercial,  or 
any  other  kind,  can  show  so  small  a  percent¬ 
age  of  loss  as  this,  and  it  is  gratifying  that 
the  percentage  of  loss  is  continually  decreas¬ 
ing,  coming  down  from  $21.55  in  the  admin¬ 
istration  of  Van  Buren  to  an  average  of 
twenty-three  cents  on  the  thousand  dollars,  or 
only  about  one-sixtieth  as  much  under  the 
present  Administration.  This  is  exclusive  of 
the  Post  Office,  which  administers  its  own 
revenue.  In  the  Post  Office  the  loss  has  gone 
down  from  $11.18  on  the  $1,000  in  Jackson’s 
administration,  and  $26.19  in  Van  Buren’s, 
to  $1.59  for  the  first  term  of  Grant,  and  $1.01 
for  the  second  ;  with  an  average  of  $3.51  for 
the  whole  period  I  move  that  this  statement, 
which  I  think  is  creditable  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment  and  to  all  parties,  be  printed  ;  and  that 
the  adverse  report  of  the  Committee  on  Print¬ 
ing  on  the  rest  of  the  document  lie  over  until 
the  return  of  the  Senator  from  West  A^irginia. 

Mr.  WITHERS.  In  justice  to  the  Senator 
from  AVest  A^irginia,  under  whose  resolution 
the  report  was  made  which  the  Committee  on 
Printing  have  reported  against  the  printing 
of,  I  think  it  proper  to  state  that  he  certainly 
nev^er  intended  his  resolution  to  parade  before 
the  country  the  names  of  such  parties  as  have 
been  read  by  the  Senator  from  Rhode  Island, 
his  idea  and  object  being  to  elicit  information 
with  regard  to  the  number  of  hona  fide  default¬ 
ers  to  the  Government ;  and  the  reductio  ad 
absurdum  which  has  been  reached  this  morn¬ 
ing  through  the  remarks  of  the  Senator  from 
Rhode  Island  I  do  not  think  is  fairly  appli¬ 
cable  to  the  resolution  which  was  pre.sented 
by  the  Senator  from  West  A’^irginia  or  to  the 
information  which  was  elicited  thereby,  his 
object  being,  as  I  say,  to  secure  information 
as  to  the  number  and  amount  of  bona  fide  de¬ 
falcations  which  had  occurred  in  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  those  and  those  only  he  desired  to 
.have  printed.  I  say  this  in  justice  to  him 


3 


Mr.  SHERMAN.  All  I  desire  to  say  is 
that  the  resolution  of  the  Senator  from  West 
Virginia  as  originally  offered  would  have 
called  only  for  those  defalcations  that  occurred 
under  a  republican  administration,  or  was 
limited  in  point  of  time  from  1865  to  this 
period,  and  would  have  included  the  names 
of  hundreds  and  thousands  of  soldiers  who 
died  on  the  field  of  battle  with  the  very  arms 
used  in  defense  of  their  country  cliarged  to 
them,  and  which  charges  are  yet  on  these 
books.  So  with  officers  of  the  Navy.  The 
injustice  of  the  resolution  of  my  friend  from 
West  Virginia  was  that  it  confined  itself  to  a 
particular  period,  during  which  a  particular 
party  was  in  power  ;  and,  therefore,  it  was  ex¬ 
tended  back  so  as  to  embrace  many  adminis¬ 
trations  of  many  parties,  different  phases  of 
our  political  life  from  1834  to  this  time. 

Now,  when  it  comes  before  us  I  do  not 
think  tliiit  the  Senator  from  West  Virginia,  or 
any  Senator  who  looks  over  this  list,  would 
do  the  injustice  to  publish  this  list  either  from 
1865  down  or  from  1834  down  ;  but  I  did  not 
object  to  this  paper  being  prepared,  because, 
if  there  is  any  defaulter,  any  man  who  really 
has  appropriated  with  bad  intent  money  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  which 
he  has  not  paid  over,  he  should  be  exposed. 
Here  is  a  formidable  list,  and  from  that  list 
those  cases  may  be  expurgated  and  published 
if  necessary.  As  I  said  the  other  day,  I 
should  be  willing  to  publish  on  the  barn-doors 
all  over  this  broad  land  the  name  of  every 
man  who  has  robbed  the  Government  or  be¬ 
trayed  the  trust  reposed  in  him  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  United  States  ;  but  it  is  man¬ 
ifest  that  in  doing  that  we  ought  not  to  do 
injustice  to  the  most  virtuous,  the  most  pa¬ 
triotic,  and  the  best  men  in  our  land. 

Mr.  WITHERS.  That  is  all  that  the  Sen¬ 
ator  desired  to  accomplish,  I  have  no  doubt. 
I  think  he  does  not  do  it  by  printing  such 
cases  as  are  described. 

Mr.  SHERMAN.  The  difficulties  will  then 
be  in  making  the  expurgation. 

Mr.  MORRILL,  of  Vermont.  When  this 
subject  was  up  in  the  first  instance,  on  the 
motion  of  the  Senator  from  West  Virginia,  I 
thought  it  a  matter  of  sufficient  importance  to 
go  to  the  Treasury  Department  and  ascertain 
precisely  what  had  been  the  amount  of  the 
defalcations  there  and  at  the  Internal -Rev¬ 
enue  Bureau,  and  I  obtained  similar  results 
to  those  which  have  been  read  by  the  Senator 
from  Rhode  Island,  but  based  on  different 
dates  and  presented  in  a  little  different  man¬ 
ner,  but  still  in  a  manner  of  sufficient  interest, 
I  think,  to  warrant  me  in  reading  the  two 
communications  that  I  received  at  that  time. 
First,  I  read  from  the  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury : 


Treasurv  Department, 

Washington,  March  22, 1876.- 

Dear  Sir:  Referrinti  to  your  verbal  request,  made 
on  Saturday  last,  ^o'  bo  furnished  with  a  statement 
showing  the  defalcations  of  customs  officers,  I  have  the 
honor  to  inform  you  that  the  total  amouut  of  collect¬ 
ions  of  revenue  from  customs  Jrom  April  1,  1861,  to 
June  30,  1875,  amounted  to  $2,136,305,612.12.  Total  de¬ 
falcations  from  Ifarch  4,  18G1.  to  June  30,  1875,  $355,- 
534.27,  The  defalcation  is  1-GO  of  1  per  cent,  of  the 
amount  collected,  or  $1.G0  in  every  $10,000. 

I  promised  to  send  these  figures  to  you  on  Saturday 
last,  but  found  it  impossible  until  the  present  moment 
to  get  them  ready. 

Very  truly, 

CHAS.  F.  CONANT. 

Hon.  Justin  S.  Morrill, 

United  States  Senator,  Washington,  D.  O. 

I  also  have  a  communication  from  the  Com¬ 
missioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  which  is  as 
follows ; 


Treasury  Department, 

Office  of  Internal  Revenue, 

Washington,  D.  O.,  March  18,  1876. 

Sir:  In  compliance  with  your  request,  I  have  the 
honor  to  submit  herewith  (he  following  statement 
taken  from  the  books  and  records  of  this  office : 


The  total  of  internal-revenue  tax  returned  by  the 
various  collectors  of  internal  res'enue  during  the 
period  from  September  1,  1862,  to  IMarch  31,  1865, 'being 
from  the  organization  of  the  internal  system  to  the 
close  of  the  month  preceding  the  end  of  Mr.  Lincoln’s 
administration  is  $283,111,131;  the  ascertained  “cash 
deficiencies”  of  collectors  appointed  during  that  period 
are  $414,508.10,  or  about  13-l(j0  of  1  per  cent,  of  the 
amount  collected.  In  the  period  from  April  1,  1865,  to 
February  28,  1869,  being  the  period  in  even  months 
covered  by  Mr.  Johnson’s  administration,  the  collec¬ 
tions  were  $817,068,305 ;  ascertained  cash  deficiencies 
of  collectors  appointed  in  that  period,  $1,626,802.52,  or 
about  2-10  of  1  per  cent,  of  the  amount  collected.  In 
the  period  from  March  1,  1869,  to  February  28, 1876, 
being  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  administra¬ 
tion  to  the  close  of  the  last  month,  the  collections  are 
$854,808,237 ;  ascertained  cash  deficiencies  of  collectors 
appointed  in  this  period.  $592,751.80,  or  about  69-1000 
of  1  per  cent,  of  the  amount  collected. 

As  the  balances  for  the  last  period  mentiened  are  of 
comparatively  recent  occurrence  and  are  now  in  pro¬ 
cess  of  collection,  it  is  believed  that  a  large  proportion 
of  it  will  ultimately  be  recovered,  so  that  the  actual 
ultimate  loss  will  be  very  much  less  than  herein  shown. 

Respectfully, 

C.  D.  PRATT, 
Commissioner, 


Hon.  J.  S.  Morrill, 

United-States  Smate. 


I  think  under  the  circumstances  the  present 
and  past  republican  administrations  since 
1861  have  no  reason  to  feel  <ashamed  of  the 
exhibit. 

Mr.  ANTFIONY.  Mr.  President,  I  desire, 
in  justice  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
who  made  this  report,  and  in  reply  to  the  re¬ 
marks  of  my  friend  from  Virginia  who  seemed 
to  think  that  the  report  had  embodied  informa¬ 
tion  not  called  for  by  the  Senate,  to  read  the 
resolution,  which  is: 

That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be,  and  hereby 
is,  directed  to  furnish  the  Senate,  as  soon  as  practicable, 
a  statement  of  all  balances  due  to  the  United  States 
from  public  officers,  and  all  such  balances  due  from 
other  parties,  (no  longer  in  the  public  service,)  distin¬ 
guishing  those  whose  accounts  with  the  United  States 
have  been  finally  passed  upon  and  adjudicated  and 
those  whose  accounts  are  yet  unsettled  and  subject  to 
additional  credits,  stating  the  nature  of  such  accounts 


4 


and  the  credits  in  question ;  the  statement  to  embrace 
the  accounts  of  all  such  ofScers,  or  parties  in  which 
such  balances  have  accrued  since  the  1st  day  of  Jan¬ 
uary,  1830,  and  to  set  forth  respectively,  and  as  near  as 
practicable,  the  period  over  which  the  accounts  exten¬ 
ded  and  the  amounts  involved  therein. 

I  do  not  see  how,  under  tliat  resolution, 
the  Secretary  of  the  .Treasury  could  have 
done  less  than  to  send  the  communication 
which  is  before  us ;  and,  if  it  is  information 


that  is  not  needed,  it  is  our  fault  in  calling  for 
it,  not  his  in  sending  it. 

The  PRESIDENT  Tiro  tempore.  The  chair¬ 
man  of  the  Committee  on  Printing  asks 
that  the  report  which  lie  has  submitted  lie  on 
the  table  and  that  the  summary  statement 
which  he  submits  be  printed.  Is  there  objec¬ 
tion  to  that  ?  The  Chair  hears  none,  and  the 
Senate  so  orders. 


THE  MASSACRE  AT  HAMBURGH,  S.  C. 


Eemarks  of  Hon.  Egbert  Smalls,  M.  0.,  from  South  Car¬ 
olina,  IN  THE  House  of  Eepresentatives,  July  15,  187G. 

The  House,  having  resolved  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  resumed  the 
consideration  of  the  joint  resolution  (H.  E,.  No.  96)  to  provide  for  the  protection  of  the  Texas  frontier  on  the 
Lower  Rio  Grand — 


Mr.  SMALLS.  I  offer  the  amendment 
which  I  send  to  the  desk. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Add  to  the  first  section  the  following : 

Provided,  That  no  troops  for  the  purposes  named  in 
this  section  shall  be  drawn  from  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  so  long  as  the  militia  of  that  State  peaceably 
assembled  are  assaulted,  disarmed,  and  taken  prison¬ 
ers,  and  then  massacred  in  cold  blood  by  lawless  bands 
of  men  invading  that  State  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  SMALLS.  I  hope  the  House  will 
adopt  that  proviso  as  an  amendment  to  the 
bill.  As  I  have  only  five  minutes  I  send  to 
the  desk  a  letter  published  in  one  of  the  news¬ 
papers  here  from  an  eye-witness  of  the  massa¬ 
cre  at  Hamburgh,  and  I  ask  the  Clerk  to 
read  it. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

The  origin  of  the  difficulty,  as  I  learn  from  the  best 
and  most  reliable  auihority,  is  as  follows:  On  the 
Fourth  of  July  the  colored  people  of  the  town  were 
engaged  in  celebrating  tlie  day,  and  part  of  the  cele- 
br.'tion  consisted  in  the  parade  of  the  colored  militia 
company.  After  marching  through  the  principal 
streets  of  the  town,  the  company  came  to  a  hault 
across  one  of  the  roads  leading  out  of  the  town. 
While  resting  there  two  white  men  drove  up  in  a 
buggy,  and  with  curses  ordered  the  company  to  break 
ranks  and  let  them  pass  through.  The  captain  of  the 
company  replied  that  there  was  plenty  of  room  on 
cither  side  of  the  company,  and  they  could  pass  that 
way.  The  white  men  continued  cursing  and  refused 
to  turn  out.  So  the  captain  of  the  militia,  to  avoid 
difficulty,  ordered  his  men  to  break  ranks  and  permit 
the  buggy  to  pass  through. 

Mr.  SCHLEICHER.  I  rise  to  a  point  of 
order.  I  wish  to  know  if  this  proposition  is 
germane  to  the  bill. 

Sever.al  Members.  Too  late. 

The  (TI AIRMAN.  The  Chair  desires  to 
say  that  it  strikes  him  as  being  as  germane  as 
other  propositions  wliieh  have  been  generally 
entertained  to  make  it  allowable. 

The  Clerk  continued  the  reading  of  the 
letter,  as  follows : 


The  order  was  obeyed,  and  the  white  men  went  on 
their  way  uttering  threats.  The  next  day  a  colored 
trial  justice  issued  processes  against  the  officers  of  the 
company,  based  on  the  complaint  ot  the  two  w'hite 
men,  citing  the  officers  to  appear  and  answer  to  a 
charge  of  obstructing  file  public  highway.  They 
obeyed  the  writs,  and  after  a  slight  examination  the 
justice  adjourned  the  trial  until  Saturday,  the  8th 
instant.  On  that  day,  at  an  early  hour,  the  town  com¬ 
menced  to  fill  up  with  white  men  armed  to  the  teeth 
with  repeating  rifles  and  revolvers.  The  colored  peo¬ 
ple  had  no  idea  of  the  bloody  tragedy  which  was  soon 
to  take  place,  and  consequently  made  no  preparations 
to  resist  an  attack,  and  were  almost  defenseless. 

Late  in  the  afteriioon  General  M.  G.  Butler,  one  of 
the  most  malignant  of  the  un-reconstructed  rebels, 
rode  into  the  town  accompanied  by  a  score  of  well- 
armed  white  men,  and  stated  to  the  leading  colored 
men  that  he  came  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  the 
case  on  the  part  of  the  two  white  men,  and  he  demand¬ 
ed  that  the  militia  company  should  give  up  their  arms 
and  also  surrender  their  officers.  This  demand  the 
militia  was  ready  to  comply  with  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  a  difficulty  if  General  Butler  would  guarantee 
them  entire  safety  from  molestation  by  the  crowd  of 
white  desperadoes.  This  Butler  refused  to  do,  and 
persisted  in  his  demand  for  the  surrender  of  the  guns 
and  the  officers,  and  threatened  that  if  the  surrender 
was  not  immediately  made  he  would  take  the  guns 
and  officers  by  force  of  arms.  This  threat  ai’oused 
the  militia  company  to  a  realizing  sense  of  their  impend¬ 
ing  danger,  and  they  at  once  repaired  to  a  large  brick 
building  some  two  hundred  yards  fromMhe  river, 
used  by  them  as  an  armory,  and  there  took  refuge. 
They  numbered  in  all  about  forty  men,  and  had  a  very 
small  quantity  of  ammunition.  During  this  time, 
while  the  militia  were  taking  refuge  in  their  armory, 
tho  white  desperadoes  were  coming  into  the  town  in 
large  numbers,  not  only  from  the  adjacent  county  of 
Edgefield,  but  also  from  the  city  of  Augusta,  Georgia, 
until  they  numbered  over  fifteen  liundred  well-armed 
and  ruffianly  men  who  were  under  the  immediate 
command  and  direction  of  the  ex-rebcl  chief  M  0. 
Butler.  After  the  entire  force  had  arrived,  the  build¬ 
ing  where  the  militia  had  taken  refuge  was  entirely 
surrounded  and  a  brisk  fire  opened  upon  it.  This 
fire  was  kept  up  for  some  two  hours,  when  finding 
that  the  militia  could  not  be  dislodged  by  small  arras, 
a  messenger  was  sent  to  Augusta  for  artillery.  Dur¬ 
ing  all  this  time  not  a  shot  had  been  fired  bj*^  the 
militiamen.  The  artillery  arrived  and  was  posted  on 
the  bank  of  the  river  and  opened  fire  on  the  building 
with  grape  and  canister. 


5 


^Ir.  SCHLEICHER.  I  rise  to  a  question 
of  order.  If  tliis  be  read  as  a  part  of  the 
gentleman\s  remarks,  is  lie  not  subject  to  tlie 
five  minutes  rule  ? 

Tile  CriAIRMAN.  The  gentleman  from 
Soutli  Carolina  was  recognized  at  thirty-two 
minutes  past  three  o’clock.  There  is  still 
half  a  minute  remaining. 

Mr.  TOWNSEND,  of  New  York.  I  hope, 
the  paper  will  be  read  through. 

The  Clerk  j-esumed  the  reading  of  the  pa¬ 
per,  as  follows : 

The  militia  now  realized  that  it  was  necessary  to 
oyacnate  the  armory  at  once.  They  i)roceeded  to  do  so, 
petting  out  of  a  back  window  into  a  corn  field.  They 
Avere  soon  discovered  by  the  ruffians,  and  a  rush  was 
made  for  them.  Fortunately,  by  hiding  and  hard  fight¬ 
ing,  a  portion  of  the  command  escaped,  hut  twenty- 
one  Avere  captured  by  the  hushAvhackers  and  taken  im¬ 
mediately  to  a  place  near  the  railroad  station. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  RAINEA".  I  rise  to  oppose  the 
amendment,  and  I  yield  my  time  to  my  col¬ 
league  [Mr.  Smalls]  in  order  that  the  read¬ 
ing  of  tiie  letter  may  be  continued. 

A  Member.  The  two  gentlemen  are  on 
one  side. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  present  incum¬ 
bent  of  the  chair  confesses  to  some  doubt 
whether  the  multiplication  and  piling  up  of 
pro  forma  amendments  for  the  purpose  of  mu¬ 
tual  accommodation  is  strictly  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  rule.  The  Chair  felt 
that  in  the  debate  that  terminated  a  little 
while  ago.  But  inasmuch  as  these  things 
have  generally  been  practiced — a  multiplica¬ 
tion  of  joro  forma  amendments  or  a  gentleman 
getting  the  floor  in  order  to  yield  time  to  an¬ 
other — 'the  Chair  allows  this. 

Mr.  COX.  I  hope  the  paper  will  be  read 
through. 

Mr.  HARTRIDGE.  I  ask  that  it  may  be 
read  by  unanimous  consent. 

Mr.  HANCOCK.  I  hope  there  will  be  no 
objection  to  its  being  read  through. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  paper  is  being 
read  in  the  time  of  the  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina,  [Mr.  Rainey.] 

The  Cleik  continued  the  reading,  as  fol¬ 
lows  : 

Here  a  quasi-drumhoad  court-martial  was  organized 
by  the  hlood-luiiitcrs,  and  the  last  scene  of  the  horrible 
drama  began.  It  must  now  be  remembered  that  not 
one  of  the  twenty -one  colored  men  had  a  pistol  or  gun 
about  them.  The  moment  they  were  captured  their 
arms  were  taken  from  them,  and  they  were  absolutely 
defenseless.  The  orderly  sergeant  ol  the  militia  com- 
l>any  Avas  ordered  to  call  the  roll,  and  the  first  name 
called  out  to  be  shot  in  cold  blood  Avas  Allan  T.  Atta- 
way,  the  first  lieutenant  of  the  company,  and  holding 
the  po.'Jition  of  county  commissioner  of  Aiken  County, 
in  Avliich  county  Hamburgh  is  situated  He  pleaded 
for  hi.s  life  as  only  one  in  his  position  could  plead,  but 
hi  i  jileadings  Avere  met  with  curses  and  bloAvs,  and  he 
Avas  taken  from  the  siglit  of  his  comrades  and  a  file  of 
tw(>lve  men  tired  u]Aon  him.  He  AA^as  penetrated  by 
four  balls,  one  entering  his  brain,  and  the  other  three 
the  loAver  i>ortion  of  his  body.  He  Avas  instantly  killed 
and  after  he  Avas  dead  the  brutes  in  human  shape 


struck  him  over  the  head  with  their  guns  and  stabbed 
him  in  the  face  with  their  bayonets.  Three  other  men 
were  treated  in  the  same  brutal  manner.  The  fifth 
man  Avhen  taken  out  made  a  dash  for  his  life  and  luck¬ 
ily  escaped  with  only  a  slight  wound  in  his  leg. 

In  another  portion  of  the  toAvn  the  chief  of  police, 
a  colored  m,an  named  James  Cook,  was  taken  from  his 
house  and  Avhile  begging  for  his  life  brutally  murdered. 
Not  satisfied  with  this,  the  inhuman  fiends  beat  him 
over  the  head  with  their  muskets  and  cut  out  his 
tongue. 

Another  colored  man,  one  of  the  marshals  of  the 
toAvn,  surrendered  and  was  immediately  shot  through 
the  body  and  mortally  wounded.  He  has  since  died. 
Bo  far  as  1  have  been  able  to  learn  only  one  Avhite  man 
AA'as  killed.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  six  colored  men 
were  brutally  murdered  and  one  wounded,  Avhilo  on  the 
side  of  the  AAffiites  only  one  man  was  killed.  After  this 
holocaust  of  blood  was  oA'er  the  desperadoes  in  large 
bodies  entered  the  houses  of  most  of  the  prominent 
colored  men  of  the  toAvn  and  completely  gutted  them. 
They  stole  all  they  ])Ossibly  could,  andAvhat  they  could 
not  steal  they  destroyed.  Furniture  was  smashed,  books 
torn  to  pieces,  pictures  cut  from  their  frames,  and 
everything  that  could  be  destroyed  AA^as  given  up  to  the 
demon  of  destruction.  Such  scenes  my  eyes  have  never 
before  witnessed  and  the  distress  and  suflering  among 
the  poor  colored  people  was  heart-rending  to  behold. 
The  town  is  desolate  and  the  inhabitants  haA'e  taken 
refuge  in  Aiken,  Columbia,  and  other  points.  The  civil 
authorities  are  powerless  or  too  negligent  to  do  any¬ 
thing,  and  peace  and  order  c.annot  bo  preserved  unless 
United  States  troops  are  sent  to  this  point  at  once. 

The  scenes  during  the  massacre  were  fearful  to  be¬ 
hold — the  moon  shining  doAvn  upon  the  horrid  scene 
lighting  up  the  whole  Avith  a  ghastly  light ;  the  pop¬ 
ping  of  small  arms;  the  screams  of  frightened  Avomen 
and  terrified  children;  the  loud  reports  from  the  ar-. 
tillery,  all  tended  to  make  a  scene  terrible  and  more 
than  fearful  to  behold.  And  noAv  Avhat  Avas  the  provo¬ 
cation  given  for  this  hellish  slaughter?  The  answer  is, 
nothing.  Legally  the  militia  had  the  right  of  way  over 
the  public  road.  The  day  was  the  nation’s  holiday. 
The  militia  had  a  perfect  right  to  parade,  and  vehicles 
of  all  kinds  Avere  required  to  keep  out  of  their  Avay, 
and  not  interfere  Avith  their  inarching.  Again,  General 
Butler  had  not  the  shadoAv  of  a  right  to  demand  the 
arms  of  the  militia.  They  AA’ere  organized  und«r  the 
constitution  and  laws  of  the  State,  and  were  part  and 
parcel  of  the  armed  force  of  the  CommoiiAvealth.  No 
private  citiien  had  the  slightest  right  to  molest  them. 
Such  molestation  Avas  a  direct  bloAv  at  the  poAver  and 
authority  of  the  State.  It  Avas  a  revolutionary  step,  and 
should  be  thus  punished. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  COCHRANE.  I  ask  unanimous  con¬ 
sent  that  the  reading  of  the  letter  be  finished. 

Mr.  COOK.  I  hope  there  will  be  no  objec¬ 
tion. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  Unanimous  consent 
cannot  be  granted  in  Committee  of  the  Whole. 

Mr.  CONGER.  I  move  to  strike  out  the 
last  word  of  the  amendment  of  the  gentle¬ 
man  from  South  Carolina,,  [Mr.  Smalls,] 
and,  as  part  of  my  remarks,  I  ask  that  the 
reading  may  be  continued 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  chair,  perhaps, 
was  not  thoroughly  understood  when  he  spoke 
before.  He  desires  simply  to  say  that 
although  he  has  some  doubt  about  the  pro¬ 
priety  of  these  pro  forma  airangements,  still 
he  cheerfully  consents  to  their  being  contin¬ 
ued,  because  such  has  been  the  practice  in 
the  Committee  of  the  Whole  House. 

The  Clerk  resumed,  and  concluded  the 
reading  of  the  letter,  as  follows: 


6 


Are  the  sonthern  colored  citizens  to  be  protected  or 
are  they  to  be  left  at  the  mercy  of  such  ruffians  as  mas¬ 
sacred  the  poor  men  of  Hamburgh  ?  The  murdered 
Attawny  was  a  man  of  considerable  prominence  in  the 
republican  party  of  the  county.  lie  Avas  a  law-abiding 
citizen,  held  a  responsible  office,  and  Avas  Avell  thought 
of  by  many  people.  The  other  murdered  men  Avere 
aood  citizens  and  have  never  been  knoAvn  to  infringe 
the  laAA".  The  whole  affair  Avas  a  aa-cII  and  secretly 
phanned  scheme  to  destroy  all  of  the  leading  republi- 
caus  of  the  county  of  Aiken  living  in  Hamburgh.  M! 
C.  Butler,  Avho  lost  a  leg  Avhilo  fighting  in  the  ranks  of 
the  rebels,  and  avIio  is  to-day  the  bitterest  of  Ku-Klux 
democrats,  Avas  the  instigator  of  the  Avhole  affair  and 
the  blood-thirsty  leader  of  the  massacre.  He  boasted 
in  Hamburgh  during  the  fight  that  that  Avas  only  the 
beginning;  that  the  end  Avould  not  be  until  after  the 
elections  in  November.  Such  a  man  should  be  dealt 
Avith  Avithout  pity  or  without  hesitation.  The  United 
States  Government  is  not  powerless,  and  surely  she 
will  not  be  silent  in  an  emergency  like  this,  the  parallel 
of  Avhich  pen  cannot  describe.  In  this  centennial  year 
will  she  stand  idly  by  and  see  her  soil  stained  Avith  the 
blood  of  defenceless  citizens,  and  Avitness  the  bitter  tears 
of  Avoiuen  and  children  falling  upon  the  murdered  bodies 
of  their  loved  ones?  God  forbid  that  such  an  attitude 
will  be  assumed  toward  the  colored  people  of  the  South 
by  the  best  Government  the  world  ever  sa\An”  Some¬ 
thing  must  be  done,  and  that  quickl3\  or  South  Carolina 
Aviirshed  teai-s  of  blood  and  her  limbs  be  shackled  by 
democratic  chains. 

Wha,t  I  have  AA  ritten  in  this  letter  are  facts  which  1 
vouch  'for  entirely,  and  are  not  distorted  in  any  degree. 
It's  a  “  plain,  unvarnished  ”  naiu-ation  of  painful  and 
horrible  truths 

Mr.  HILL.  Bead  the  name  attached  to 
the  letter. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  Chair  under¬ 
stands  tliere  is  no  name  given. 

Mr.  HILL.  Who  is  the  author  of  the 
letter  ? 

Mr.  CONGER.  I  hope  that  all  this  will 
not  be  taken  out  of  my  time. 

The  CHAIRIMAN.  The  gentleman  from 
Michigan  [Mr.  Congek]  has  hve  full  minutes- 
of  sixty  seconds  each. 

Mr.  CONGER.  Then  I  yield  five  minutes 
to  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  [Mr. 
Smahls.] 

Mr.  SMxVLLS.  This  is  a  letter  written  by 
a  genileman  vvdio  was  an  eye-witness  of  this 
transaction  to  me,  and  I,  sir,  had  that  letter 
published  in  the  paper.  I  am  responsible  for 
the  name.  • 

Mr.  COCHRANE.  Whose  name  is  it? 
W^ho  wrote  that  letter? 

Mr.  SMALLS.  I  will  say  to  the  gentleman 
if  he  is  desirous  that  the  name  shall  be  given 
in  Older  to  have  another  negro  killed,  he  will 
not  get  it  from  me.  [Applause.] 

The  CHAIRMAN.  Does  the  gentleman 
from  South  Carolina  wish  to  occupy  the  rest 
of  the  five  minutes  ? 

Mr.  SMALLS.  I  do  not. 

Mr.  CONGER.  Thtn  I  resume  the  floor. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  gentleman  from 
Michigan  has  three  and  a  half  minutes  of  his 
time  remaining. 

Mr.  CONGER.  W’^hen  an  amendment  was 
before  the  committee  to  increase  the  regi¬ 


ments  without  any  reference  to  the  action  of 
the  House  in  reducing  the  Army,  I  made  a 
suggestion  to  the  House  that  that  proposition 
would  draw  from  other  cavalry  regiments  a 
large  portion  of  their  quotas  and  leave  them 
with  a  very  diminished  number  of  men.  The 
amendment  that  is  offered  here  i.^  a  very  sim¬ 
ple  and  a  very  proper  one  and  in  accordance 
with  the  amendment  which  was  last  under 
consideration.  It  is  that,  in  portions  of  the 
United  States  where  the  lives  and  property  of 
the  citizens  are  alleged  to  be  invaded,  where 
it  is  alleged  that  property  is  taken  and  life 
taken  by  riotous  men,  in  regions  of  country 
where  troops  are  as  necessary  to  protect  them 
as  they  are  necessary  to  protect  our  citizens 
on  the  borders  of  Texas,  notwithstanding  this 
resolution  which  we  propose  to  pass,  troops 
shall  not  be  taken  from  those  regions  where 
their  presence  is  equally  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  the  life  of  the  citizen  and  the 
protection  of  his.  property. 

I  venture  to  say  there  is  no  man  on  this 
floor  that  dare  rise  in  the  presence  of  the 
American  people  to  oppose  this  amendment, 
and  I  challenge  any  man  to  it ;  not  alone  on 
account  of  the  statements  in  that  communica¬ 
tion,  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  which  I  do  not 
now  speak,  but  from  the  common  knowledge 
which  everyone  has  of  the  events  in  the  State 
of  South  Carolina.  From  facts  universally 
acknowledged  I  venture  to  say  that  the  same 
spirit  which  will  induce  every  member  of 
this  committee  and  every  member  of  this  Con¬ 
gress  to  raise  his  voice  and  his  hand  in  defense 
and  protection  of  the  citizens  of  the*  country 
would  palsy  the  hand  that  would  be  raised  to 
oppose  the  extension  of  that  protection  to  one 
portion  of  the  United  States  where  the  same 
necessity  for  protection  exists. 

Sir,  I  believe  that  the  cutting  down  of  the 

Armv  was  the  result  of  a  determination  on 

•/ 

the  part  of  some  men  somewhere  to  prevent 
troops  being  sent  into  States  where  lawless 
men  take  the  lives  of  peaceable  citizens,  I 
just  charge  that  as  the  attempt  inaugurated  in 
this  House  and  carried  out  I  regret  to  say  with 
the  assent  of  men  who  never  ought  to  have 
given  it  their  assent. 

Mr.  MILLIKEN.  I  would  ask  the  gentle¬ 
man  if  he  has  any  member  in  his  eye  or  in 
his  mind  whom  he  pictures  as  that  man. 

Mr.  CONGER.  I  charge  that  the  natural 
and  inevitable  result  of  that  reduction  must 
be  to  leave  the  Army  so  small  that  with  the 
Indian  war  upon  our  hands  and  the  necessity 
of  protecting  the  Texas  border  there  would 
be  no  forces  to  be  sent  into  other  portions  of 
our  country  where  the  presence  of  an  Army  is 
eminently  desirable  and  necessary. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 


THE  r)EA.H  LOCK. 

Hon.  JAMES  WILSOJ\^,  in  the  House  of  Rejjresentatives 

Wednesday,  June  28,  1876. 


Macanley  says  that  a  week  of  civil  war  in 
England  would  be  felt  from  the  Hoang-Ho  to 
the  Mi'^souri  a  hundred  years  hence.  We 
know  something  of  the  effects  of  civil  war. 
But  he  must  have  the  gift  of  prophecy  who 
can  foretell  the  effects  of  stopping  our.  Gov¬ 
ernment  by  a  refusal  to  pass  the  appropriation 
bills,  of  stopping  the  courts,  the  mails,  the 
foreign  service,  the  Army,'  the  Navy,  the 
Indian  Bureau,  the  Pension  Bureau,  Bureaus 
of  Education  and  Agriculture ;  in  short,  stop 
the  whole  American  Government  because  one 
committee  of  the  House,  after  having  absorbed 
the  functions  of  nearly  all  the  standing  com¬ 
mittees  of  the  House,  insist  upon  pushing  the 
prerogatives  of  the  House  beyond  any  pre¬ 
cedent  heretofore  set,  and  against  the  ver^ 
letter  of  the  Constitution  itself,  that  gives  the 
Senate  the  same  power  to  amend  a  revenue 
bill — conceding  an  appropriation  bill  to  be  a 
revenue  bill — that  the  House  has  to  originate 
it.  If  the  Senate  refuse  to  cut  down  where  it 
should  be  done  they  are  responsible  and  can 
be  reached,  but  such  a  revolution  as  a  failure 
to  pass  the  appropriation  bills  would  bring 
about  is  not  justified  by  the  Senate  refusing  to 
change  existing  law  on  a  money  bill.  *  * 

Consider  the  present  situation.  We  have 
civil  and  military  establishments,  the  salary 
of  each  officer  and  employ^  established  by 
law.  The  House,  whether  by  exclusive  right 
or  not,  originates  bills  approriating  money  to 
support  these  establishments. 

It  has  been  customary  to  allow  nothing  to 
be  tacked  to  these  bills  not  in  accord  with  ex¬ 
isting  law,  if  either  House  objects.  When 
tlie  law  is  to  be  changed  a  standing  commit¬ 
tee  of  the  House,  under  the  rules,  has  juris¬ 
diction,  and  part  of  the  legislative  machinery 
of  the  House  is  arranged  bv  which  laws  can 
be  changed  when  a  majority  of  the  House  cte- 
sire.  There  are  thirtv-four  standing  commit' 
tees,  upon  which  are  appointed  all  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  House,  having  charge  of  all  the 
subjects  upon  which  Congress  can  legislate. 

One  of  these  committees  is  that  on  appro 
priations,  consisting  of  eleven  members,  the 
.same  as  the  other  committees.  It  has  former¬ 
ly  been  charged  with  the  duty  of  preparing 
and  reporting  bills  to  appropriate  money  in 
conformity  with  existing  law.  When  legisla¬ 
tion  has  been  tacked  on  these  bills,  it  has  been 
by  suspending  the  rule  and  making  it  in  order 
by  a  two-thirds  vote.  Such  new  legislation 
has  been  limited  heretofore  to  occasional 
clauses.  But  this  session  a  new  policy  has 
been  inaugurated,  enabling  a  majority  by 
changing  the  rule  to  do  what  could  only  be 
done  heretofore  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the 
House.  This  departure  from  time-honored 


custom  has  given  to  the  eleven  members  com¬ 
posing  the  Appropriations  Committee  the 
power  heretofore  exercised  by  the  standing 
committees,  and  is  a  concentration  of  power 
unheard  of  in  our  times.  Close  observation 
of  the  workings  of  tliis  new  order  of  things 
has  shown  that  when  the  opinion  of  the  Ap¬ 
propriations  Committee  clashed  with  that  of 
any  other  standing  committee,  the  standing 
committee  could  not  be  sustained. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  unless  the  party 
in  power  for  the  time  being  in  the  House 
stands  well  by  the  Appropriations  Committee 
they  cannot  succeed  in  carrying  through  the 
eleven  bills  for  the  support  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Our  eleven  members  on  the  Appro¬ 
priations  Committee  first  got  the  power 
through  a  change  in  the  rule.  Then  the  maj¬ 
ority  was  compelled  to  sustain  them  as  against 
any  standing  committee.  The  Committee  on 
Appropriations  adopted  a  theory  of  reduction 
of  10  per  cent,  in  pay,  20  per  cent,  in  force. 
In  some  Bureaus  of.  the  Government  this 
might  be  applied  without  detriment ;  in 
others  only  at  the  expense  of  efficiency.  The 
Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  on  the  Post- 
Office  and  Post-Roads,  on  Agriculture,  on  In¬ 
dian  Affairs,  and  others,  might  and  often  did 
protest  against  the  iron  resolution  of  the  (.’orn- 
mittee  on  Appropriations.  But  power  is 
sweet  even  to  a  committee,  and  necessity  com¬ 
pelled  the  House  to  sustain  them.  One  by 
one  the  standing  committees  Avere  beaten. 
The  judgment  of  one  committee  of  eleven 
men  was  indorsed  on  one  day  against  tlie 
judgment  of  eleven  men  on  one  standing 
committee,  on  another  day  ag.ainst  eleven 
men  on  another  standing  committee,  until 
the  whole  field  was  gone  over ;  and  now  we 
have  the  law  changed  relating  to  all  branches 
of  the  Government  on  the  recommendation 
of  eleAmn  members  of  the  House,  whom  the 
House  was  compelled  to  sustain  if  we  passed 
appropriation  bills  at  all.  I  do  not  say  that 
the  Appropriations  Committee  has  not  been 
industrious.  I  am  sure  they  have  been.  I 
do  not  say  they  are  incompetent.  I  think  if 
they  had  confined  themselves  to  reporting 
bills  to  carry  out  existing  law,  as  former  Ap¬ 
propriations  Committees  have,  they  would 
have  been  fairly  succes.sful.  But  they  have 
applied  an  unbending  rule  to  everything. 
They  cannot  know  Avliat  all  the  consequences 
Avill  be.  The  House  surely  does  not  know 
whether  they  have  done  well  or  crippled  the 
Executive  l)ei)artments  of  the  Government. 
The  Senate,  being  vested  by  the  Constitution 
with  the  same  powers  to  amend  appropriation 
bills  that  we  are  vested  with,  and  consequently 
under  the  same  responsibility  the  House  is 


8 


under,  and  hesitating  to  stop  or  block  the 
wheels  of  Government,  determined  to  be  gov¬ 
erned  by  law,  and  change  the  law  relative  to 
appropriation  bills  only  when  their  judgment 
tells  them  it  is  wise  to  do  so. 

For  this  law-abiding  spirit  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  compares  the  Senate  to  the 
English  Frown  and  their  stand  for  law  and 
order  to  the  encroachments  of  the  royal  pre¬ 
rogative  on  the  English  Commons.  The 
House  says  it  is  economy  because  the  Appro¬ 
priations  Cornraitte  thinks  it  is.  The  Senate 
does  not  know  it  is  economy  and  proposes  to 
stand  by  the  law  until  a  reason  is  given  for 
changing  it.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the. Sen¬ 
ate  refuses  to  agree  to  the  reduction  of  ex¬ 
penditures  because  they  concurred  last  Con¬ 
gress  in  a  reduction  of  twenty-six  millions  on 
these  same  bills  when  the  House  gave  them 
abundant  time  to  ascertain  what  they  were 
doing.  There  is  no  doubt  of  their  willing¬ 
ness  now  to  help  efiect  salutary  retrenchment, 
but  it  is  not  clear  to  many  of  us  that  we  have 
not  gone  entirely  too  far  in  nearly  every 
direction,  while  it  is  clear  to  many  of  us  that 
we  have  cut  too  deep  in  many  directions. 

It  would  not  become  a  member  of  the 
House  to  advocate  the  yielding  of  any  privi¬ 
lege  or  prerogative  that  belongs  to  it,  either 
by  custom  or  through  the  Constitution.  But 
tire  issue  raised  by  the  gentleman  from  New 
York,  respecting  the  right  of  the  House  to 
the  exclusive  control  of  appropriation  '  ills 
and  the  denial  of  the  right  of  the  Senate  to 
either  originate  or  amend,  can  result  in  no 
good  to  the  country.  The  two  bodies  are  co¬ 
ordinate  and  have  equal  powers  in  making 
ail  laws,  except  that  the  House  has  the  sole 
power  to  originate  a  revenue  bill.  After  it  is 
originated,  the  powers  of  the  House  and  Sen-^ 
ate  are  equal  in  every  respect.  Nor  is  it 
possible  to  conceive  how  any  evil  can  result 
from  the  power  of  the  Senate  to  amend  or  re¬ 
ject  any  bill.  The  Senate  is  not,  like  the 
House  of  Lords,  a  hereditary  Hocly,  but  is 
elective  and  representative  in  its  character. 
There  is  but  little  analogy  between  our  Sen¬ 
ate  and  the  English  House  of  Lords.  The 
reference  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  to 
the  struggle  .between  King  and  Parliament, 
before  it  can  be  brought  into  comparison  with 
our  courted  dead  lock,  mu.st  be  transposed. 
In  the  English  case  the  Parliament  struggled 
for' existence.  If  the  King  could  levy  taxes 
he  had  no  need  of  Parliament.  In  our  case 
we  are  tiie  aggressors ;  we  are  reaching  for 
more  power  than  the  Constitution  gives  us; 
and,  while  there  was  no  doubt  the  people 
sided  with  the  Commons,  we  have  no  evidence  . 
whatever  that  the  people  desire  the  Senate  t@ 
yield  to  us  its  constitutional  privileges.  The 
judgment  of  both  is  needed,  and  I  do  not 
think  it  would  be  best  that  the  whole  respon¬ 
sibility  of  passing  appropriation  bills  should 
ji»esi  on  the  House.  It  is  a  prominent  feature 


in  our  form  of  government  that  absolute 
power  and  sole  responsibility  rest  nowhere 
but  with  the  people,  whose  majority  vote  can 
bring  about  anything  they  desire,  the  same  as 
a  majority  of  this  House  can  find  a  way  to  do 
anything  or  prevent  anything  fronr  being 
done. 

The  assertion  that  we  are  the  most  heavily 
taxed  people  in  the  world  has  led  me  to  in¬ 
quire  into  the  sources  of  taxation,  and  for 
illustration  I  have  inquired  into  tl^e  amount 
of  taxes  laid  on  one  of  my  constitqents  and 
who  lays  them.  I  find  the  average  Iowan 
pays  for  municipal  and  local  purposes,  laid 
by  himself,  seven  dollars  and  a  half.  The 
State  of  Iowa  lays  one  half  dollar  on  him  ; 
the  late  war,  to  pay  interest  on  the  war  debt, 
pensions,  war  claims,  &c.,  lays  $3  on  him ; 
and  the  United  States,  to  support  the  foreign 
service,  the  Army  and  Navy,  pay  interest  on 
lands  got  by  treaty  from  the  Indiaiis,  to  pro¬ 
vide  for  the  deficiency  in  the  mail  service, 
meet  the  executive,  legislative,  judicial  and 
other  expenses  of  the  Government,  lays  little 
over  $2  on  him.  Now  you  see  who  is  taxing 
the  people.  More  than  one-half  of  all  taxes 
are  local,  nearly  one-fourth  the  interest  on 
the  cost  of  the  late  war,  and  a  little  over  one- 
sixth  suffices  for  all  the  purposes  of  the  Gen¬ 
eral  Government,  derived  from'  whisky,  to¬ 
bacco,  and  foreign  imports.  No  people  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  are  as  lightly  taxed  by* 
their  government ;  our  Army  but  a  skeleton, 
our  Navy  a  shadow,  compared  with  the  great 
armies  and  fleets  of  old  countries.  We  are 
the  best-fed,  best-clothed,  best-housed,  most 
generally  educated,  freest,  and  should  be  the 
happiest  people  on  earth.  This  misrepresen¬ 
tation  of  the  condition  of  our  people  on  the 
floor  of  Congress  is  unwise  and  sinful,  and,  to 
a  stranger  who  might  be  listening,  incompre¬ 
hensible. 

If  there  is  depression  in  some  of  our  indus¬ 
tries,  so  there  is  all  over  the  world.  We  have 
been  living  on  too  high  a  plane;  we  must 
economize  a  little  till  times  get  better.  Our 
system  lias  enabled  the  workman  to  live  like 
the  higher  classes  of  some  countries.  If  over- 
speculation  and  overproduction  of  the  pro¬ 
ducts  of  our  factories  has  overflowed  the  home 
market  we  must  seek  one  abroad  and  curtail 
family  expenses  till  the  home  market  revives 
or  the  foreign  one  is  found.  If  you  take  off 
the  $2  per  capita  that  internal  and  customs 
duties  bring  us  and  run  the  Government  for 
nothing,  it  would  not  create  a  home  market 
for  iron  and  cotton  goods. 

Our  people  are  not  ground  down  by  taxa¬ 
tion.  We  expend  very  freely  to  educate  and 
improve,  and  moderately  for  civil  service.  If 
the  Blouse  would  turn  ks  attention  to  the  in¬ 
dustries  of  the  people  more  than  to  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  party  it  would  find  a  more  noble  field 
for  inquiry. 


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